Robert Germain found himself faced with a heartbreaking choice in recent weeks. As he no longer has a family doctor, he was offered to pay between $350 and $500 for a private health check-up or give up his driver’s license.
Robert Germain
▪ 82 years old
▪ Longueuil
▪ Without a doctor for three years
“Doctors have become traders, businessmen. We have paid taxes all our lives, it is not to have our pockets emptied once we retire,” laments Robert Germain.
When he received the documents from the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec for his driving license last February, he made numerous calls to family medicine clinics.
- Listen to the interview with Dr. Marc-André Amyot, president of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec, via QUB :
“For me, if I no longer have my license, it’s almost suicide. I use my vehicle for my trips,” he says, listing his daily meetings at Place Longueuil with his friends or his errands at the grocery store or Costco.
Robert Germain at the wheel of his car which he uses in particular to do his shopping at the grocery store and Costco.
Photo Eric Yvan Lemay
His friend, Jos Morabito, was luckier. By calling the medical clinic that followed him for around forty years in Montreal, he was offered to fill out the SAAQ paperwork for $125.
Robert Germain was finally able to have his documents completed free of charge by a clinical nurse whom he had already consulted without an appointment.
Robert Germain and his friend, Jos Morabito, at Place Longueuil where they meet regularly. Both men lost their family doctors in recent years.
Photo Eric Yvan Lemay
Three years ago, his family doctor decided to leave the public sector to practice privately. Opposed to the idea of paying for his health care, he found himself “orphaned” by a doctor.
Registered on the waiting list since then, he believes that doctors are reluctant to take older patients. “When I walk into a doctor’s office, I don’t have just one problem, I have four,” illustrates the man who is in remission from lymphoma.
In recent months, he would have also wanted to consult for problems he was having with his bronchial tubes, but in vain.
“It stresses me”
Her pharmacist prescribed blood tests for certain tests, but that’s all the public health system can offer her. The octogenarian fears the future without a family doctor.
“I would definitely contact a family doctor. It stresses me out,” he said.